Former NBA guard Patrick Beverley made a strong claim over Hall of Fame guard Michael Jordan and future Hall of Fame guard James Harden's respective offenses. Beverley ranked Kevin Durant higher than Larry Bird over the summer. Then, he delivered another hot take about Jordan and Harden. While many consider Michael to be the greatest NBA player of all time, Patrick says James might be “slightly better” offensively.
Beverley is open to giving Harden the slight edge over Jordan as the better offensive player, he said, per N3on's YouTube channel.
“The best basketball player to ever play the game is who?” Beverley asked. “James Harden,” Neon replied, to which Beverley stated, “Michael Jordan is. Offensively, James Harden is damn sure close. Might be slightly better. Slightly —offensively,” he added.
Harden, who earned three consecutive scoring championships (2017-2020), pales in comparison to Jordan's 10 scoring titles. As an active NBA player with 27,687 career points, Harden is 11th on the all-time scoring list while Jordan is fifth. However, when it comes to career free throws made, James surpassed MJ with 8,164 career free throws made, as the fifth all-time leading free-throw scorer, to Michael's 7,327, which is seventh.
As for threes, a stat that heavily depended on in today's NBA compared to Jordan's era, only Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is in front of Harden, who surpassed Hall of Fame shooter Ray Allen (2,973), last season. With 3,175 career threes made, Harden will most likely remain the second all-time leading three-point scorer for quite some time.
Patrick Beverley thinks Kevin Durant vs Larry Bird ‘isn't close'
After Patrick Beverley nearly reunited with the Rockets last season, he went unsigned throughout the 2024-25 campaign. Since then, Beverley started a podcast focused on the NBA, which included some hot takes on who he believes are two of the greatest small forwards to ever play the game.
When it comes to comparing Rockets' Kevin Durant to Hall of Fame forward Larry Bird, it's not even close for Beverley, who says Durant is the better player.
“I don’t think it’s close, KD. What are we talking about?” Beverley asked. “I mean we’re talking about Larry Bird, one of the best players of the entire decade of the 80’s. A guy who has like a lot of championships. A guy who played really good defense, a guy who was loyal to his squad and was an incredible shot maker, incredible playmaker, and if he was playing in today’s game, [he] would’ve probably burned it for like six to nine threes a game.”
"I don't think it's close. KD. What are we talking about? … If Kevin Durant was playing what Larry Bird was playing, he would average 50."
Patrick Beverley says he would put KD over Bird higher in his all-time top 10 of NBA greats 😲
(via @PatBevPod)pic.twitter.com/WCTSUSwwuU
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 27, 2025
Given the difference in Durant and Bird's respective eras, it's an interesting debate to say the least.
